ASUS A8R-MVP Mainboard Review. Page 12

We continue our search for worthy competitors to Nvidia nForce4 chipset family. Today we would like to share with you our detailed coverage of the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Crossfire based mainboard from ASUS enforced with ULi M1575 South bridge chip.

Integrated Sound

We have already mentioned before that it looks like ASUS was trying to save a few bucks by equipping its ASUS A8R-MVP platform with Analog Devices AD1986A codec. This sound solution has less attractive formal characteristics than the alternative codecs out there, but also performs worse in real-life applications.

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:

+0.21, -0.31

Good

Noise level, dB (A):

-76.8

Average

Dynamic range, dB (A):

76.3

Average

THD, %:

0.0050

Very good

IMD, %:

0.063

Good

Stereo crosstalk, dB:

-75.2

Very good

IMD at 10 kHz, %:

0.048

Good

General performance: Good

However, if we compare this sound subsystem with what most Nvidia nForce4 based mainboards have to offer, it will look just fine, even better, I should say.

As for the CPU utilization in case of high vocal tract workload, it lies within a typical range for solutions of the kind.

The numbers you can see on the comparative diagram belong to ATI SB450 with Realtek ALC882 codec and Nvidia nForce4 Ultra with the typical Realtek ALC850 codec.